KTLA: Two Cyclists “Collide with” Target Truck in Crosswalk

As we’ve seen before, the passive language of the accident’s description makes it seem as though the poor truck driver was just minding his own business when kamikaze cyclists slammed into his truck. Unfortunately, one of the cyclists, a 20 year old construction apprentice named Jakob Weathermon, died as a result of the crash while the other was rushed to the ER.

While many safety advocates urge cyclists to ride on the road, not the sidewalk, to help avoid these kinds of accidents, any driver, especially a professional, has no excuse for hitting people that are in a crosswalk while your vehicle is making a turn.

If anyone wants more information of the crash, the Daily Breeze has the details.

As unfortunate as the press description is, like the CBS 2 report on the Lancaster death, I would ascribe it to laziness on the part of the reporter and/or writer, rather than any bias or hidden agenda. As a writer myself, I understand that takes a lot more effort to carefully choose the right wording to accurately convey the situation than to just fall back on the same familiar cliches and get on to the next story. It’s just the journalistic equivalent of the “meatball surgery” MASH made famous.

Biking in LA, I get that. But when we see it over and over again in the press, and I expect that now that I’m looking I’ll be able to find at least one example a week, it sends an overall message that cyclists are at fault at all these crashes.

PS – I read about your incident with a cyclist going the wrong way last week. Ya know, cyclists aren’t uniformly not at fault when there is a crash, but in cases like this and Lancaster last week begin to paint a picture in people’s minds about what’s happening on our roads that isn’t true.

vin

I am going to get to the bottom of this. He was my nephew, an wonderful loving young man. This “accident” is torturing our family, and after talking to many witnesses the truck driver was obviously protected from scrutiny. They would not blood test the driver.

It’s bias because as a reporter you know that certain people you can go after and no one is going to say anything and certain people you can’t. You try to turn in a story to your editor with it being objective in regards to all parties it’s going to look like you are favoring the cyclist, because they are minorities and you know what will happen? They will kick it right back now this happens more than three or four times and you work at the Daily Breeze a notoriously conservative (that’s pc for racist, classist, a**holes) paper. You have one the few staff jobs on the paper you are going to just start churning out what you know they want to hear, because it’s easiest way to keep your job.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’d be the first to argue that the press and police both could — and should — do a better job investigating what really happens in any accident involving a cyclist.

In my experience, the police are quick to leap to the conclusion that the rider is at fault, simply because the current anti-cyclist bias assumes that all riders break the law, and it’s far easier to blame the cyclist than conduct an actual investigation. And as a rule, the press will simply parrot whatever the officers report, rather than digging deeper to get the real story.

Maybe there is an anti-cyclist bias in the press, but personally, I think it’s just plain old fashioned laziness and/or a lack of time and resources do the the cutbacks in the press, like the butchering that’s been going on at the Times as Zell attempts to bleed it dry. The only way either one will ever change is if we put pressure on the police to conduct a full and honest investigation, and keep pressuring the press to tell the real story, as you’ve been attempting to do.

JAKOBS UNCLE

I was at the vigil last night for my nephew. There were many people who saw what happened and came to show their support. These two people were in a crosswalk, with reasonable expectation that the stopped traffic would not hit them as they crossed in front of them. The truck driver was looking at oncoming traffic only and did not look at what was in the crosswalk, plain and simple. He made his turn, hit two people, Jakobs girlfriend was thrown away from the front and Jakob was pinned and dragged 100 feet. You can’t defend this as “careless cyle accident” when in fact it is a “careless big rig driver” who killed my nephew. Too many people saw it happen, it cannot be brushed aside as it appears the CHP and Target would like it to. Four people came to the vigil and told us that they could not sleep that night, and that they felt this could have been avoided if the driver had just looked at the crosswalk…but he didn’t.

There are a bunch of other blogs with debates over who was at fault by people who were not there, and did not talk to witnesses. The bottom line is that he would have been killed in the crosswalk even if he was WALKING. Cycle safety is superfluous in this case. Truck drivers who are careless sometimes kill people. That’s what happened.

My family is torn to pieces after losing our father only 10 weeks before.

Chuck H

I went to High School with Jakob… They need to blood test this son of a bitch driver. He was an awesome kid, and yes he was a kid not a man. 20 years old isn’t shit… Whatever happened to the pedestrians have the right away? My best wishes goes out to the family. I can’t imagine what they’re going through.

cousin lauren

This kid was like my big brother, he was my cousin, and closest family member. If that driver was at all aware of any of his surroundings, he would have seen my dear Jakob and he wouldn’t have tried to turn. He obviously didnt look carefully, or he might have at least been going slow enough to stop in time before killing Jakob. Instead my cousin was dragged by the Target truck for 100 feet and his girlfriend watching. All the driver could say for himself was “I couldn’t help it, there was nothing I could do.” Bullsh*t…that man ruined our family, because he wasn’t paying attention.

i dont know what to say. family gets torn apart, ur best friend dies and the world seems to be turning upside down. i dont know what to feel, i cried harder than i ever have before and it still hurts. family is supposed to come together not split apart, not hate , not hurt, i doesnt make any sense. i wish i could change things and i wish family didnt hate me but thats not gonna change

i feel horrible and i dont know what to do my best friend since i was a baby is dead and the rest of the family want me dead. what a crazy world, i miss jakob and i wish i could talk to him again. or at lest just say goodbye.

i felt so bad when i heard it happened, i cried worse than i ever have before. i didnt know what to do, i was so scared and i still cant get rid of that feeling. my best friend since i was 1 year old is dead. we were a big part of each others lives forever and now that hes dead i cant stop thinking about the past.

Fred Camino

“Funny How people that want at grade rail all over LA also have the same attitude as the media in this report. its the dumb persons fault they deserve it. Darwinism at it worst.”

Thatta way to politicize it LostAngelino! And great point! Clearly neither the truck driver or the bicyclist are at fault here, it is the LADOT for building sidewalks and crosswalks at-grade. Thus begins the Citizens Campaign for Underground Sidewalks. It’s the ONLY way.

Give me a break. It’s like people live, breathe, and sleep their agendas.

Right now, our family just wants to know what exactly happened, every detail so we can decide how we feel about the situation. I do not want the CHP to feel we are blaming them in any way, or that we don’t appreciate what they are doing so far. Their job here is a thankless one and they don’t need attacks from me.

I am just hurt and frustrated by how little we know at a time when we want to make “sense” of something.

“Funny How people that want at grade rail all over LA also have the same attitude as the media in this report. its the dumb persons fault they deserve it. Darwinism at it worst.”

Thatta way to politicize it LostAngelino! And great point! Clearly neither the truck driver or the bicyclist are at fault here, it is the LADOT for building sidewalks and crosswalks at-grade. Thus begins the Citizens Campaign for Underground Sidewalks. It’s the ONLY way.

Give me a break. It’s like people live, breathe, and sleep their agendas.
October 6, 2008 at 10:03 am Link # 14″

O Jesus!!! I was implying about the correlation between the tone of the article and the tone of “SOME” at rail folks that believe its peoples fault if they are in front of a train car or whatever. An attitude that quite frankly is sickening. This is not some political agenda.

I sickens me that people are that way. You can politcize this if you like.

My condolences to the family.

Amanda

Jakob was one of the nicest guys you would have ever met. He is the kinda guy that you could call at 2Am becuse you needed something and he would wake up for you. And then wake up again at 4-5am to go to work. HE was a hard worker and he loved his friends, family and girlfriend. He was my first love. I can’t believe this happened to him. HE never had it comming. In the 7 years I knew him, he never once even had anything bad to say about anyone.My heart goes out to his family. He is truely loved and missed by everyone that knew him.

We have met with our investigators and they are doing a great job of working with CHP, witnesses and local businesses to get the facts. It is not a pleasant thing to have to think about the details, but we won’t have the closure we need if we don’t get them.

There are so many good and kind people that have gone out of their way to show their compassion for our loss, it is truly amazing to me. Although I am still deeply saddened by the tragic death of this wonderful kid, I am less cynical about our society and what I thought was a “self-centered” mentality that everyone seemed to have. Truth is, most people are good loving humans and I’m glad I got to see that for myself.

What has made a huge impression on me is how many others have come forward with tragic losses of their own, to let me know they truly understand how we feel. We are in kind of a “club” now, of people who terribly lost a piece of their lives…I can’t say I want to belong to the club but I do. Peace to all…
uncle vin

at what point do we call the jury back in to give the obvious verdict to this social trial called “the auto-mobile?” The only thing automatic about stepping into a car is the very real possibility of death–your own and that of others. Thanks to sites like this one that encourage a better way and envision a better city.

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